Whenever we get submissions from bands in the Boston area, Filip throws them my way, because he knows anything Boston-related about a band will pique my interest like Pavlov’s dog. So when I heard that hey i’m outside was from Medford, my ears perked up and I started panting like someone had just ripped open a fresh bag of kibble.
Speaking of dogs, the title of hey i’m outside’s new album is Loud Ass Barking Dogs, and it’s fourteen tracks from one of the finer indie/alt-country bands to come out of the Boston ‘burbs. Their second record builds upon the sound which has made them a must-see live act not just in their neighborhood, but all over the Northeastern U.S.: Just this past year, they’ve bounced all around Massachusetts and New Hampshire, opening for The Runarounds’ sold-out show at House of Blues near Fenway Park and even making a stop at Levitate Music and Arts Festival in Marshfield (along with Alanis Morrissette, Sammy Rae & The Friends, Ziggy Marley, and others.)
But despite their rising star, hey i’m outside still keep their recording regimen on the down-low, quite literally. Their studio is the basement of band members Patrick McPherson (guitar/vox) and Hannah Fletcher (bass), with plenty of insulation to allow Noah Wisch (drums) to keep a steady beat without bothering the neighbors too much. Home recording gave the trio the leisure to record the songs for this album on their own time, despite their busy performing schedule (13 shows in 2026) and non-musical obligations. And that allowed them to explore with their sound a bit while still cranking out the solid tunes that made their self-title debut pop off.
Of course, the urgency comes through in each track: While the record sounds clean from the mastering mastery of Bennett Littlejohn, Patrick tracks and mixes everything in the basement, meaning there’s little need or want for extra production on top of the natural sound. There’s a touch of reverb, and perhaps some double tracking of vocals, but what you hear on the record is extremely close to what the three band members play live on stage. There’s a lot of love this band has for their ability to flex their musical muscle on their terms.
But where did the dogs in the album’s title come from? Well, you can’t shake a stick in Medford without hitting at least a hundred dog owners in your immediate vicinity. And their dogs are barking for any number of reasons: They see another dog, they hear a noise, they see the mailman, they think someone’s breaking into the house, they want to come in, they want to go out, and so on. You have to really know a dog to know why they’re barking, and if you don’t, the sound of a dog’s bark might just cause confusion. It’s like when you see someone you don’t know acting out. Are they frustrated? Sad? Overexcited? Overtired?
A lot of those emotions fill Loud Ass Barking Dogs, a record with two title tracks. The album’s second song, “Loud Ass Barking Dogs [loud]”, is a barn-burner with a crowd-favorite vibe and a defiant attitude: “Open those doors up, let ’em in here / It really don’t matter, tear up everything / Come on now, let ’em on in, those loud ass barking dogs.” Meanwhile, “Loud Ass Barking Dogs [soft]” – which ends the album – feels like a late-night voice memo meditation that plays around with free word association and other animals: “I got dogs and frogs running inside my head / And a few loose thoughts that I better not let get a hold on me too strong / That’s why I listen to frogs.”
Both title tracks give a really good taste of hey i’m outside’s spectrum of indie, but on songs like “Blade”, their experimentation with that sound starts to shine. With some chopped-up guitars and a little bit of flange and frequency shifting on Patrick’s vocals, the surrealism of the lyrics takes on extra weight, giving personality and almost tragedy to every inanimate object named: “I am just a blade of grass / Shaking, waiting for you to come past / With that big blade spinning so fast, so fast.” A torn-up paper bag, an old seed pod, a piece of ash, and a dial tone all make appearances as well, with the band putting these elements to good poetic use.
Peppered throughout this record are a couple of “Elevator” tracks, small instrumentals which the trio has included on their releases since their early days. These act as “elevator music”, meant to give the listener a bit of a break from the emotions of the other songs, or – like an elevator – to bring them between different parts of the album. “Elevator #4” is a bit of a hard Southern rock jam with a frantic drum beat keeping time, while “Elevator #5” really ramps up the alt-country twang.
Some songs on the album lean into that country more than others, perhaps stemming from Patrick and Hannah being expats from the South. (Noah is the only native New Englander of the three.) “Routine” and “Rift” have a bit of a bluesy edge that oozes salty grit, which you can find in the mud pits of Georgia and the marshes of the South Shore. Both of those tracks are a bit more uptempo: “Gatorade” is a true dirge, feeling a lot like the heat wave mentioned in the lyrics, making the mediocre feelings feel even stronger: “Cool water, drip on down / Cold air, c’mon, leak on out / Cuz I feel like the losing coach today / Watching the other guy doused in Gatorade.”
But a track like “What Comes Next” – the penultimate track with lyrics – acts as a perfect payoff of indie punch. It’s a little meditation on the passage of time and character growth, with a slower intro groove that launches into a tune that’s got a bit of a Midwestern emo vibe. As you go from this song into the Elevator interstitial and then into the crickets chirping before the closing track, you get one more good feel of this album’s balance of emotions. Nothing is forced upon you, but through the music and metaphorical suggestions in the lyrics, you can’t help but understand the feeling of the band writing and recording these songs. Perhaps they stir up feelings within you.
And that’s sort of the question Loud Ass Barking Dogs asks: What do these feelings mean? When I bark, why? They beg for deeper introspection, emotional exploration, a desperation to communicate. When dogs bark, we have trouble understanding what they mean. It’s often the same when we bark at each other. We owe it to ourselves and to each other to look inside, wonder why we feel the way we feel, and have moments of quiet reflection to do so. Perhaps we can curl up on the couch for a few hours for that. Perhaps we can chew on a bone in the meantime. Woof.
In any case, hey i’m outside are a band with an upward trajectory, and this new album plus their big performances over the past several months are hints at a very bright future. Take a listen to the title track from Loud Ass Barking Dogs below.
Written by Will Sisskind
